A pulsed welding regime includes a peak phase in which energy is added to an electrode and a weld puddle, and a molten ball begins to detach from the electrode, followed by a dabbing phase in which current is significantly reduced to place the ball in the weld puddle with addition of little or no energy. The resulting short circuit clears and the system proceeds to a background phase. The current in the dabbing phase is lower than the current during the background phase. The process may be specifically adapted for particular welding wires, and may be particularly well suited for use with cored wires. The dabbing phase allows for lower energy to be transferred to the sheath of such wires, and resets the arc length after each pulse cycle.
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9. A welding system comprising:
control circuitry configured to generate a control waveform for welding power output, the waveform comprising a peak phase followed by a first knee phase and a dabbing phase followed by a background phase, wherein an energy level of the welding power output transitions from a peak energy level to a dabbing energy level to command a short circuit between a welding electrode and a workpiece to occur during the dabbing phase based on the control waveform; and
power conversion circuitry configured to:
initiate the dabbing phase by controlling the welding power output to enter a non-powered state during the dabbing phase;
convert incoming power to welding power based upon the control waveform, such that the dabbing energy level is less than the peak energy level, a background energy level and a first knee phase energy levels, wherein the first knee phase energy level is greater than the background energy level; and
terminate the dabbing phase based upon determination of clearance of the short circuit.
1. A welding method comprising:
generating a control waveform for welding power output from a welding power supply, the waveform comprising at least one peak phase followed by a first knee phase and a dabbing phase followed by a second knee phase and at least one background phase, wherein an energy level of the welding power output transitions from a peak energy level to a dabbing energy level to command a short circuit between a welding electrode and a workpiece to occur during the dabbing phase based on the control waveform;
initiating transition to the dabbing phase from the peak phase via external circuitry external to the welding power supply, the external circuitry configured to short the welding power output of the welding power supply to create the dabbing phase;
converting incoming power to welding power based upon the control waveform, such that the dabbing energy level is less than the peak energy level, a background energy level and first and second knee phase energy levels, wherein the first knee phase energy level is greater than the background energy level, and the second knee phase energy level is lower than the background energy level; and
terminating the dabbing phase based upon determination of clearance of the short circuit.
8. A welding method comprising:
generating a cyclical control waveform for welding power output, the waveform comprising, in each cycle and in the following order, a peak phase, a first knee phase, a dabbing phase, a second knee phase and a background phase, wherein an energy level of the welding power output transitions from a peak energy level to a dabbing energy level to command a short circuit between a welding electrode and a workpiece to occur during the dabbing phase based on the control waveform;
initiating the dabbing phase by extracting power from a welding arc to transition from the peak phase to create the dabbing phase;
converting incoming power to welding power based upon the control waveform, such that the dabbing energy level is less than the peak energy level, a background energy level and first and second knee phase energy levels, wherein the first knee phase energy level is greater than the background energy level, and the second knee phase energy level is lower than the background energy level;
establishing the short circuit during the dabbing phase;
detaching a ball of molten metal to clear the short circuit during the dabbing phase; and
terminating the dabbing phase based upon determination or prediction of the clearance of the short circuit.
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The invention relates generally to welders, and more particularly to a welder configured to perform a welding operation in which a pulsed waveform is applied to welding wire as the wire is advanced from a welding torch.
A wide range of welding systems and welding control regimes have been implemented for various purposes. In continuous welding operations, metal inert gas (MIG) techniques allow for formation of a continuing weld bead by feeding welding wire shielded by inert gas from a welding torch. Electrical power is applied to the welding wire and a circuit is completed through the workpiece to sustain an arc that melts the wire and the workpiece to form the desired weld.
Advanced forms of MIG welding are based upon generation of pulsed power in the welding power supply. That is, various pulsed regimes may be carried out in which current and/or voltage pulses are commanded by the power supply control circuitry to regulate the formation and deposition of metal droplets from the welding wire, to sustain a desired heating and cooling profile of the weld pool, to control shorting between the wire and the weld pool, and so forth.
While very effective in many applications, such pulsed regimes may be subject to drawbacks. For example, depending upon the transfer mode, the processes may either limit travel speed, create excessive spatter (requiring timely cleanup of welded workpieces), provide less than optimal penetration, or any combination of these and other effects. Moreover, certain pulsed processes, such as ones operating in a spray mode of material transfer, may run excessively hot for particular applications. Others, such as short circuit processes, may run cooler, but may again produce spatter and other unwanted weld effects.
Moreover, in certain welding situations and with certain welding electrodes, pulsed welding processes that are trained to implement cyclic short circuits between the electrode and the workpiece may add excessive energy to the weld. For example, with cored wire electrodes, the electrode may be heated by excessive current added to the wire, particularly insomuch as the weld current tends to flow through the wire sheath, which can more easily melt than solid wires. As a result, the arc may flare (grow long). However, for spanning gaps, reducing burn-through, and increasing travel speeds, it may be desirable to maintain the arc length at a minimum. Unfortunately, this causes the wire to short to the progressing weld puddle and requires additional current to clear short circuits, again leading to heating of cored wire sheaths, and causing the arc to flare.
There is a need, therefore, for improved welding strategies that allow for welding in pulsed waveform regimes while improving weld quality and flexibility.
The present invention provides welding systems designed to respond to such needs. In accordance with an exemplary implementation, a welding system comprises processing circuitry configured to provide a control waveform comprising a peak phase followed immediately by a dabbing phase followed by a background phase; and power conversion circuitry configured to provide welding power output based upon the control waveform.
The invention also provides methods for welding, such as, in accordance with one aspect, generating a waveform for welding power output, the waveform comprising a peak phase followed immediately by a dabbing phase followed by a background phase; and converting incoming power to welding power based upon the control waveform.
Turning now to the drawings, and referring first to
The system is designed to provide wire, power and shielding gas to a welding torch 16. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the welding torch may be of many different types, and typically allows for the feed of a welding wire and gas to a location adjacent to a workpiece 18 where a weld is to be formed to join two or more pieces of metal. A second conductor is typically run to the welding workpiece so as to complete an electrical circuit between the power supply and the workpiece.
The system is designed to allow for data settings to be selected by the operator, particularly via an operator interface 20 provided on the power supply. The operator interface will typically be incorporated into a front faceplate of the power supply, and may allow for selection of settings such as the weld process, the type of wire to be used, voltage and current settings, and so forth. In particular, the system is designed to allow for MIG welding with various steels, aluminums, or other welding wire that is channeled through the torch. These weld settings are communicated to control circuitry 22 within the power supply. The system may be particularly adapted to implement welding regimes designed for certain electrode types, such as cored electrodes.
The control circuitry, described in greater detail below, operates to control generation of welding power output that is applied to the welding wire for carrying out the desired welding operation. In certain presently contemplated embodiments, for example, the control circuitry may be adapted to regulate a pulsed MIG welding regime that “dabs” or promotes short circuit transfer of molten metal to a progressing weld puddle without adding excessive energy to the weld or electrode. In “short circuit” modes, droplets of molten material form on the welding wire under the influence of heating by the welding arc, and these are periodically transferred to the weld pool by contact or short circuits between the wire and droplets and the weld pool. “Pulsed welding” or “pulsed MIG welding” refers to techniques in which a pulsed power waveform is generated, such as to control deposition of droplets of metal into the progressing weld puddle. In a particular embodiment of the invention, a specialized pulsed welding regime may be implemented in which pulses are generated that have characteristics of both short circuit welding and spray welding, in a type of “hybrid” transfer mode as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/655,174, entitled “Hybrid Pulsed-Short Circuit Welding Regime”, filed by Hutchison et al., on Oct. 18, 2012, which is hereby incorporated by reference into the present disclosure.
The control circuitry is thus coupled to power conversion circuitry 24. This power conversion circuitry is adapted to create the output power, such as pulsed waveforms that will ultimately be applied to the welding wire at the torch. Various power conversion circuits may be employed, including choppers, boost circuitry, buck circuitry, inverters, converters, and so forth. The configuration of such circuitry may be of types generally known in the art in and of itself. The power conversion circuitry 24 is coupled to a source of electrical power as indicated by arrow 26. The power applied to the power conversion circuitry 24 may originate in the power grid, although other sources of power may also be used, such as power generated by an engine-driven generator, batteries, fuel cells or other alternative sources. Finally, the power supply illustrated in
The wire feeder 12 includes complimentary interface circuitry 30 that is coupled to the interface circuitry 28. In some embodiments, multi-pin interfaces may be provided on both components and a multi-conductor cable run between the interface circuitry to allow for such information as wire feed speeds, processes, selected currents, voltages or power levels, and so forth to be set on either the power supply 10, the wire feeder 12, or both.
The wire feeder 12 also includes control circuitry 32 coupled to the interface circuitry 30. As described more fully below, the control circuitry 32 allows for wire feed speeds to be controlled in accordance with operator selections, and permits these settings to be fed back to the power supply via the interface circuitry. The control circuitry 32 is coupled to an operator interface 34 on the wire feeder that allows selection of one or more welding parameters, particularly wire feed speed. The operator interface may also allow for selection of such weld parameters as the process, the type of wire utilized, current, voltage or power settings, and so forth. The control circuitry 32 is also coupled to gas control valving 36 which regulates the flow of shielding gas to the torch. In general, such gas is provided at the time of welding, and may be turned on immediately preceding the weld and for a short time following the weld. The gas applied to the gas control valving 36 is typically provided in the form of pressurized bottles, as represented by reference numeral 38.
The wire feeder 12 includes components for feeding wire to the welding torch and thereby to the welding application, under the control of control circuitry 36. For example, one or more spools of welding wire 40 are housed in the wire feeder. Welding wire 42 is unspooled from the spools and is progressively fed to the torch. The spool may be associated with a clutch 44 that disengages the spool when wire is to be fed to the torch. The clutch may also be regulated to maintain a minimum friction level to avoid free spinning of the spool. A feed motor 46 is provided that engages with feed rollers 48 to push wire from the wire feeder towards the torch. In practice, one of the rollers 48 is mechanically coupled to the motor and is rotated by the motor to drive the wire from the wire feeder, while the mating roller is biased towards the wire to maintain good contact between the two rollers and the wire. Some systems may include multiple rollers of this type. Finally, a tachometer 50 may be provided for detecting the speed of the motor 46, the rollers 48, or any other associated component so as to provide an indication of the actual wire feed speed. Signals from the tachometer are fed back to the control circuitry 36, such as for calibration as described below.
It should be noted that other system arrangements and input schemes may also be implemented. For example, the welding wire may be fed from a bulk storage container (e.g., a drum) or from one or more spools outside of the wire feeder. Similarly, the wire may be fed from a “spool gun” in which the spool is mounted on or near the welding torch. As noted herein, the wire feed speed settings may be input via the operator input 34 on the wire feeder or on the operator interface 20 of the power supply, or both. In systems having wire feed speed adjustments on the welding torch, this may be the input used for the setting.
Power from the power supply is applied to the wire, typically by means of a welding cable 52 in a conventional manner. Similarly, shielding gas is fed through the wire feeder and the welding cable 52. During welding operations, the wire is advanced through the welding cable jacket towards the torch 16. Within the torch, an additional pull motor 54 may be provided with an associated drive roller, particularly for aluminum alloy welding wires. The motor 54 is regulated to provide the desired wire feed speed as described more fully below. A trigger switch 56 on the torch provides a signal that is fed back to the wire feeder and therefrom back to the power supply to enable the welding process to be started and stopped by the operator. That is, upon depression of the trigger switch, gas flow is begun, wire is advanced, power is applied to the welding cable 52 and through the torch to the advancing welding wire. These processes are also described in greater detail below. Finally, a workpiece cable and clamp 58 allow for closing an electrical circuit from the power supply through the welding torch, the electrode (wire), and the workpiece for maintaining the welding arc during operation.
It should be noted throughout the present discussion that while the wire feed speed may be “set” by the operator, the actual speed commanded by the control circuitry will typically vary during welding for many reasons. For example, automated algorithms for “run in” (initial feed of wire for arc initiation) may use speeds derived from the set speed. Similarly, various ramped increases and decreases in wire feed speed may be commanded during welding. Other welding processes may call for “cratering” phases in which wire feed speed is altered to fill depressions following a weld. Still further, in pulsed welding regimes, the wire feed speed may be altered periodically or cyclically.
More complete descriptions of certain state machines for welding are provided, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,747,247, entitled “Welding-Type Power Supply With A State-Based Controller”, issued to Holverson et al. on Sep. 19, 2001; U.S. Pat. No. 7,002,103, entitled “Welding-Type Power Supply With A State-Based Controller”, issued to Holverson et al. on May 7, 2004; U.S. Pat. No. 7,307,240, entitled “Welding-Type Power Supply With A State-Based Controller”, issued to Holverson et al. on Feb. 3, 2006; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,670,579, entitled “Welding-Type System With Network And Multiple Level Messaging Between Components”, issued to Davidson et al. on Sep. 19, 2001, all of which are incorporated into the present disclosure by reference.
The waveform shown in
The waveform 68 shown in
By way of example, in the waveform illustrated in
It may be noted that the terms “peak”, “dabbing”, and “background” have been used in the present discussion to convey the phases of the waveform based upon the short “dabbing” phase, as opposed to other pulsed welding regimes. In other programming language, these phases might correspond to “ball”, “back”, and “pre-short”, although those phases in conventional systems are not programmed to implement the low-energy dabbing contemplated by the present techniques.
On the corresponding current waveform 80, the background phase is indicated by reference numeral 88, while the peak phase is indicated by reference numeral 90. It may be noted that the current does vary during these phases as the system attempts to maintain the target or programmed voltage. As noted above, then, a reduced dabbing current target is used to deposit the molten ball in the weld puddle with reduced energy input, as indicated by reference numeral 92. In certain cycles, a “wet” phase 94 may be implemented to assist in clearing the short circuit. Moreover, in cycles when short circuits do not easily clear, a more elevated current may be used to force the short circuit to clear, as indicated by reference numeral 96.
It should be noted that in the waveforms illustrated in
In the present technique, on the other hand, a current lower than the background current level is targeted immediately after the peak phase. For example, while the background current level may be on the order of 25-125 amps, the dabbing current may be less than approximately 25 amps, for example, on the order of 15-25 amps. The duration of the dabbing may be very short, such as on the order of 1-5 ms. This reduced current allows the short circuit transfer of the molten ball with the addition of very little energy, thus avoiding overheating the electrode. The arc length is thus reset and excessive stickout and flaring of the arc are avoided.
It should be noted that in some implementations the dabbing may be performed in different ways than by a low current target following the peak phase. For example, an output short circuit may be created via a switch to quickly reduce the current between the electrode and the workpiece and weld puddle. Similarly, the output power may be switched off for a short duration following the peak phase in order to extinguish the arc or at least to add little or no energy.
As mentioned above with respect to
At step 142 the dabbing phase is initiated as discussed above. Termination of this dabbing phase (and therefor its duration) may follow one or more optional techniques, however. As indicated by step 144, the dabbing phase may simply be timed so that current is increased to exit the dabbing phase after expiration of a pre-set time. This type would generally be programmed into the control regime, such as based on known welding performance for certain wires, current levels, and so forth. In this option, once the set duration expires, the system raises the current to the next programmed level.
At step 146, however, the dabbing phase could be exited upon detection of a short circuit between the welding electrode and the workpiece. Such short circuits may be determined, for example by monitoring weld current, which will tend to spike upon the occurrence of a short circuit, or weld voltage, which will tend to drop as the electrode (or its molten tip) and the weld puddle come close and ultimately touch. Here the dabbing phase would continue until the system detects such short circuiting, and then the next phase of control would be implemented to raise the current.
At step 148, in another alternative, the dabbing phase may ride through such short circuits, and the control circuitry may exit the dabbing phase when it detects that the short circuit has likely cleared. Such clearing may be determined by reference, for example, to a rising weld voltage (as the electrode material separates from the weld puddle) or by a tendency for the weld current to drop (indicating the conductive path resulting form the short circuit is being interrupted). The control regime would then move to the next phase.
At step 150, similarly, the dabbing phase may be terminated based upon a prediction of short clearing. A number of factors may be monitored for such predications, such as a rate of change of voltage (e.g., at least one of first and/or second time derivatives), a rate of change of current, a rate of change of power, or any other reference that tends to indicate that the short circuit established in the dabbing phase has not yet cleared but will soon clear.
While these possible dabbing phase terminating approaches have been presented in the alternative, it should be understood that all of some of them (and indeed others) may be programmed into the basic regime, and then implemented by selection by the weld engineer, product designer, or even the user. Similarly, some of these may be used together (e.g., exiting dabbing upon occurrence of the earlier of a short clear or a timeout). Moreover, in practice, the timing and duration of the dabbing phase may change, including between cycles, and in likelihood would change if the termination of this phase is a function of anything other then a fixed time.
In the illustration of
It should also be noted that various further alternative approaches are available utilizing the dabbing phase techniques discussed above. For example, in one presently contemplated embodiment, the dabbing phase could be initiated by external circuitry 25 (that is, external to the welding power supply and/or the power supply control circuitry), as shown in the example of
While only certain features of the invention have been illustrated and described herein, many modifications and changes will occur to those skilled in the art. It is, therefore, to be understood that the appended claims are intended to cover all such modifications and changes as fall within the true spirit of the invention.
Davidson, Robert R., Mehn, Peter Donald, Schuh, Richard J.
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Nov 24 2014 | DAVIDSON, ROBERT R | Illinois Tool Works Inc | ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS | 034477 | /0057 | |
Nov 24 2014 | SCHUH, RICHARD J | Illinois Tool Works Inc | ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS | 034477 | /0057 | |
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